By Tresca Weinstein

Published 5:57 pm, Friday, May 23, 2014

The life of a high school student, says Ward Dales, director of the Albany High School Theater Ensemble, is like "being in a pressure cooker all day."

That might help explain why more than 300 Albany High students participated in the development of "The Identity Project," a theater work that gave them the chance to tell their stories in a supportive environment.

"Young people have a lot to say, and they need to be heard," says Noelle Gentile, a teaching artist with Capital Repertory Theatre who conceived the project with Dales and directed it. "They're longing for spaces to feel safe to express themselves."

"The Identity Project" is on stage Sunday at 6 p.m. at Capital Rep.

An Albany High graduate, Gentile taught theater at schools in Brooklyn for eight years before returning to the Capital Region several years ago when her young daughter was born. Like "The Identify Project," the works she made with her students in Brooklyn were created through a series of workshops that generated a plethora of rich, and real, material.

For "On Her Shoulders," high school girls interviewed female military veterans about everything from sexual harassment in the military to patriotism. "Sandy Stories" brought together union workers who helped rebuild New York after Hurricane Sandy with Gentile's students, some of whose homes were destroyed by the storm.

"Art is a really powerful tool for transforming something painful in your life," says Gentile, who discovered that first-hand when she created an experimental documentary film as a way to process an experience of abuse.

"You can feel a palpable shift in the room whenever people start speaking their truth," she said. "An instantaneous community is forged."

In the workshops leading up to the creation of "The Identity Project," Albany High students (including many from the school's English as a Second Language program) used interviews, writing, poetry and visual art as ways to reflect on issues of race, culture, gender and sexual orientation. They discussed the impact of social media in their lives, and discovered the common truth that "we are all more complicated than the boxes society has put us in," Gentile said.

The project dovetails with Dales' mission to move the Ensemble's work toward more student-centered and student-driven productions. Toward that end, he started a playwriting class, and "The Identity Project" will be featured as part of the Ensemble's Promising Playwright Festival, May 29-31 at 7 p.m. at the high school.

"My whole approach to theater education is that the work needs to focus on the students finding their voices, figuring out who they are and healing themselves," said Dales, who marks his 20th anniversary in the Albany school system this year, and his ninth directing the Ensemble. "One of the privileges and honors I have as a performing arts teacher is being able to create an environment and opportunities for pretty stressed-out kids to stop and reflect, experience their feelings and talk about their lives and who they are." Fourteen students, more than half of whom have never performed before, will bring their own and their peers' stories to the stage on Sunday. These are raw, intimate narratives about things like being a refugee in the United States, coming out as a lesbian, self-harming, dealing with a father's suicide. Some are lighter but just as universal, like that of a student who uses a DiscMan instead of an iPod and talked about what it's like to be different, even in this small way.

The monologues are woven with recorded sound, spoken word, movement created by Albany High choreographer Gregory Theodore Marsh and a film component made in collaboration with artists from YouthFX, an Albany-based program designed to introduce teens to filmmaking. Students who aren't performing participated behind the scenes as filmmakers, photographers, assistant directors, technical artists and other roles.

The process "models real collaboration in the art world, with young and older artists working together," Gentile said.

In an era when much of school curriculum revolves around testing, she said, projects like this foster community and improve academic performance. The goal, she added, is not only to affect those who contributed to the piece, but also those in the audience who didn't participate but will still see a version of themselves on stage.

"You can't quantify this experience as you would a test but, when you see it, you understand the impact," she said. "These aren't just teenage stories, they're human stories."